


Follow the Four-Color Trail

by raven_aorla



Category: Buzzfeed The Try Guys (Web Series), The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Genre: Adventure, Allegory, Families of Choice, Fusion, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 13:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17961038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_aorla/pseuds/raven_aorla
Summary: The tale of Keith and his companions - the Crash Test Dummy, the Golden Boy, and the Brave Kitten - and their journey to find the Boss of Buzzfeedland.





	Follow the Four-Color Trail

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this video, in which the interviewer compares the Try Guys to Wizard of Oz characters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceeoSx7Ry-4). I basically agree with the ones he assigned, but I wanted to customize them while still keeping it recognizable.
> 
> Disclaimer: while I have taken inspiration from real people and events, all details that are not fictional are used fictitiously. I know the Try Guys irl have an amicable relationship with their former employer.

Once upon a time, a young man in a blue and white shirt, blue jeans, and extra large ruby red sneakers found himself in the bizarre world of Buzzfeedland. His name was Keith, and he wanted to go home.

A pair of chatty paranormal investigators came to see if this person who had suddenly appeared was a ghost or not. They suggested that he go speak to the Boss of Buzzfeedland to get help returning home. The shorter one, who'd initially been afraid of Keith yet was first to greet him, advised that the safest way would be to follow the four-color trail: a long, winding path of blue, pink, green, and purple stripes. 

The first friend Keith made was the Crash Test Dummy, made of sturdy plastic with green eyes and glued-on strawberry blond hair. He was trapped in a car that had smashed into a wall, because his job was to throw himself at things but sometimes he did it excessively. Keith got him out. They talked for awhile, and the Crash Test Dummy realized that he had hit his head very hard and could no longer remember how to find his wife. He was smart, and he knew he had one and that he loved her very much, but he just couldn’t remember where she was. So Keith suggested that they could go to the Boss of Buzzfeedland together. Maybe he would know. Everyone said the Boss of Buzzfeedland knew everything.

Further along on their journey, they met the Golden Boy. Usually when people call someone a golden boy, they mean he’s popular and successful. The Golden Boy was popular and successful, but he was also shiny and beautiful thanks to literally being made of gold, with sculpted black hair so perfect Keith found it annoying. The Golden Boy lived on a raised platform and everyone would watch him and admire him. But he told Keith and the Crash Test Dummy that he was feeling lonely. He felt like everybody only saw his exterior, and his life at Buzzfeedland was keeping people from seeing his heart. The other two told him that if they came with them, maybe he could get a job where his heart would be less difficult to share.

As Keith, the Crash Test Dummy, and the Golden Boy followed the four-color carpet, they were…“attacked” is not really the right word. The creature that leapt out at them the shadows was the Brave Kitten. This blue-eyed, stripey talking tabby was sweet but also angry. Though he was a courageous cat, he was so tiny and fragile that he lost to other kittens all the time when they played together. He also had numerous food allergies and a partially fused tail. The others weren’t sure if taking him to the Boss of Buzzfeedland would help any of his problems, but he was super cute and liked riding on their shoulders or in their arms, so they took him along anyway.

So the four of them continued to follow the four-color trail, and oh what a strange, terrifying, and wonderful journey it was. They had to work together. When Keith and the Brave Kitten got hungry, the Crash Test Dummy stole food from a trio of fauns having a picnic (two loud, one quiet), distracting them by stirring up an argument over whether expensive apples were ultimately better than cheap apples. The group had to run for it afterwards, but it was worth it. When the quartet had to cross through a land of tough yet ladylike warriors who were suspicious of male strangers, the Golden Boy turned himself into the Golden Girl and helped the others put on dresses (or in the Brave Kitten’s case, a sparkly pink collar). This did not actually fool the Ladylike Warriors, but they were amused and let them pass. The Brave Kitten slipped through a gate and opened it for the rest. Keith kept everyone’s spirits up when they were getting tired. He also stopped the others when they argued, especially the Crash Test Dummy and the Golden Boy, who tended to compete against each other a tad too hard. 

There was so much more. Time in Buzzfeedland is different than time outside of it, and in some ways they lived many lifetimes together. They sledded on a glacier. They swam in water full of sharks. They baked pies without recipes to please a drunken witch. They had to do things that hurt, and things that embarrassed them, but also things that made them laugh and learn. They didn’t know if they would succeed or not, but they tried.

Finally, they reached the Crimson Office of the Boss of Buzzfeedland. After all the hype, Keith was a little disappointed to see that he was just a man in a suit, but he didn’t want to judge by appearances. They stated their cases to the Boss of Buzzfeedland. The Boss of Buzzfeedland smiled and said that their adventures had been very interesting to the people there, and he wanted them to stay in Buzzfeedland and do even more work for him. Many of the things he promised sounded great, but they did not solve the important problems. The Golden Boy, in particular, wanted to be free. When they refused, the Boss of Buzzfeedland ordered his army of flying lawyers to attack them. 

In the battle that followed, the Crash Test Dummy hit his head again in just the right way to remember where he’d left his wife. The quartet fled Buzzfeedland and found her in nearby Angel City. The Crash Test Dummy’s wife, the kind and beautiful Vintage Doll, had been hard at work herself and was glad to see them. Thankfully, because of the difference in the pace of time, from her perspective he’d been gone long enough to be concerned but not severely distressed. She told him that she was nearly done building their Robot Baby, whom they wanted to raise in their new house. Would her husband’s friends like to stay in the old one, now that they could not return to Buzzfeedland?

The Golden Boy, the Brave Kitten, and Keith agreed with enormous gratitude. The couple took the other three to the old, largely bare house, let them in, and did their best to make it comfortable.

“You can stay forever, as far as we’re concerned,” the Vintage Doll said as they were all resting in the living room after much remodeling. “I’m sorry the Boss couldn’t give you want you wanted.”

“Well, he indirectly gave me what I wanted,” the Crash Test Dummy said, holding her close.

The Brave Kitten twitched his unusual little tail. “It’s funny. Now that you mention it, I feel a lot stronger than I used to.”

“I’ve shared my heart with you,” the Golden Boy said softly, and he let them all hug him for the first time.

“But it’s not fair for you, Keith, because you didn’t find your way home,” the Vintage Doll said. 

Keith looked at his new family, and he looked around the sparse room that held them and could hold so much more. He smiled. “Maybe I did.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Ryan Bergara helped make the Try Guys' first video, which means he's partly to thank for getting them together. That's the biggest reason why he's playing the Glinda role. Shane's there because it'd be a true crime to separate them. I couldn't come up with a Wicked Witch of the West analogue without it feeling forced, though I briefly considered Demon!Shane for the role. So the Boss of Buzzfeedland plays double duty instead.
> 
> ETA: I've been informed that Adam Bianchi from the Worth It crew also helped create that vid, so I added a third, quieter faun to the picnic.


End file.
